Welcome to Imperial Clinical Trials Unit (ICTU)

This website is intended for people who are considering taking part in clinical trials and would like to find out more about what’s involved, why clinical trials are important and what the benefits of taking part in trials are. You can also find out about current clinical trials going on in ICTU and how to get involved.

EDC design

What are the benefits of taking part in a trial?

One of the main benefits of taking part in a clinical trial is that throughout the trial your health will be closely monitored by a study doctor and/or study nurse. This may mean seeing your doctor/nurse more often than you normally would and they will usually have more time to spend with you at each visit than on a normal visit. The additional monitoring and extra tests received by patients taking part in trials can sometimes lead to early identification of other health problems which might not otherwise have been identified until later and these can be swiftly investigated.

For patients with a specific medical condition which cannot be adequately treated with medications currently on the market, taking part in a clinical trial can mean they are able to have access to new treatments which are not yet available to the public. The treatment may or may not help you personally. However, in either case the results of the trial will improve doctors’ knowledge of how to treat other patients like you.

All of the medications available for use today are only here because of the people who took part in earlier clinical trials to find out whether they were more effective or safer than the older medicines which were in use at the time. In taking part in clinical trials, you will be adding to the knowledge of how to best treat or prevent a specific illness. While this may or may not benefit you personally, it is certainly likely to improve the treatment of all those with a condition like yours in the future.